


Firecracker

by toli-a (togina)



Category: Justified
Genre: Coda, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-13
Updated: 2018-12-13
Packaged: 2019-09-16 15:52:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 550
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16956960
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/togina/pseuds/toli-a
Summary: Boyd and Raylan have a brief conversation about middle school.





	Firecracker

**Author's Note:**

> For the tumblr prompt, "My vote would be for a deleted scene or coda to The Spoil because I love hungover Raylan being an Extra Strength Asshole (“nothin bout no beatin the shit out of a teenager tho,” his speech in the Bennett police station and his convo with Boyd where he gets so emphatic he almost loses his hat, “and then I got my third hit,” “you see a gun, step in front of it,” him totally wrecking Carol for trying to use him for her agenda, him imitating her w/ the firecracker, lying to get Arlo’s money)." Also tied to sparkofthevoid asking for inside jokes between Boyd and Raylan.

“You know what that sounded like?” Boyd whispers, crouched down beside Raylan next to the podium, though he’s unarmed as far as Raylan can tell, and Raylan doesn’t know what help Boyd thinks he’s going to be.

“A quick end to the festivities?” Raylan guesses, listening to Boyd with one ear and straining to hear any more gunfire with the other, though Raylan supposes a bomb could go off now and he wouldn’t be able to hear it for all the commotion folks are making as they leave. “A church bell pealing out a ray of light in the darkness?”

“Why, that’s downright poetic, Raylan,” Boyd says, follows Raylan when he moves away from the podium and Carol Johnson. Raylan keeps one hand on his gun, though he leaves the gun in the holster. “But not quite what I was thinking.” Boyd keeps his voice low enough that Raylan can barely hear him over the sheriffs herding everyone on their way. “I was thinking that it sounded like our eighth grade student assembly.”

“You were – what?” Raylan twists so he’s half facing Boyd, gestures Carol Johnson to stay behind the podium when she looks like she might stand and join them. “You thought it sounded like Principal Turpin telling us to stop defacing the toilet stalls?”

Boyd sighs, takes his hands out of his pockets like he might need them to illustrate his point. “Eighth grade assembly,” he repeats, enunciating each word. “Of which Principal Turpin was not the highlight, if you’ll recall.”

Raylan squints at Boyd. “That’s only because you set off those … Oh. You telling me that you’ve returned to your juvenile delinquent ways, Boyd? You setting off firecrackers at town meetings now?”

Boyd lifts his shoulders, holds up both hands with a disarming expression on his face. It’s an expression Raylan’s seen before and knows better than to believe in any case. “I am merely telling you what I heard,” Boyd says, and Carol Johnson chooses that moment to disregard Raylan’s good advice and join them out in the open where anyone could shoot her. Or set off firecrackers near her, if Boyd’s correct.

“You recall telling me earlier that if there was anything you could do for me, I could ask?” Raylan wonders, notices that Boyd’s gone quiet about his childhood felonies now that Carol Johnson’s standing there.

“Are you asking, Raylan?” Boyd smiles, a little smug, and slides his hands back into the pockets of his jeans.

“I am.” Raylan nods at the nearest deputy, watches some of them leave to check the perimeter again. “I am asking you, Boyd, to go the hell away.”

Boyd’s smile fades a little, but any pang that might cause Raylan is far outdone by the ache in his jaw from Coover and the ache in his head from Jim Beam.

“Only ‘cause you asked so nicely, Raylan,” Boyd says, tips his head toward Raylan, and goes.

Which unfortunately leaves Raylan with Carol Johnson and the regrettable suspicion that Boyd is right and this is just like eighth grade, where once again Raylan’s the only one in the room who knows from whence the firecrackers came. (He’s still hopeful Boyd’s wrong, though, and maybe Raylan will at least have the opportunity to shoot someone before the day is through.)


End file.
